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3,000ft above the glacier floor and a 6 hour hike form base camp. Ryland and I are tucked under a rock cliff, dug into the snow and hidden from a cold north wind that rages an arms reach away. 200 ft to our east is the starting point to the “Wall of Walls,” quite possibly the most amazing face I have ever considered riding.
If you told me 5 days ago I would be in this position I would have thought you were crazy. In my head I figured the “Wall of Walls” would have taken weeks not days to unlock but the weather gods have blessed us with 5 straight days of sun and we have been able to climb the terrain progression ladder faster then I thought. The price has been 14 hour day after 14 hour day and both my mind and our bodies are running on reserve.
Six hours ago it was looking like this was a dream that would not make it to reality. Our original plan to get over the bergschrund failed, as did the second, and our third and final option looked hopeless until I found a snowbridge that could support our weight over the dark cracks below. Once on the face my brain and body took over and before long we were 2,000 ft off the deck, the sun was long gone and we were hanging onto twilight trying to top out before total darkness. Our homes were on our backs, the ocean was not far below, huge peaks dotted the horizon and we had know idea where we would sleep or if we could make it up the last steep pitch of the climb.
Looking back the last two seasons I now realize how much I have learned. Without the endless days of splitboarding in my home range, the Sierra, and without last season’s AK trip or the rope work in Chamonix and the bergschrund lessons of Antarctica, I would not be here. I am big mountain riding on a level I never imagined. My whole body is aching, my boots are frozen, my feet or soaked and I could not be happier.
The Wall of Walls. “Can we climb it? What is the safest way….?” Free Jones Snowboard hat for the first right answer.
The boot pack.
At the top.
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The Bivy.
The Reward.
What a treat. Time to relax on a sunny day and dry our boots, have a huge breakfast that was brought to us by TB and take a nap. We had five hours to kill before we needed to start hiking to our evening lines and we we were to far to go back to camp.
